| Historic Name: |
Boren Investment Company Warehouse |
Common Name: |
Home and Garden Furnishings |
| Style: |
Beaux Arts - Neoclassical, Commercial |
Neighborhood: |
South Lake Union |
| Built By: |
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Year Built: |
1925 |
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| Significance |
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In the opinion of the survey, this property is located in a potential historic districe (National and/or local). |
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This historic property has been formally designated a City of Seattle landmark per the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Ordinance (SMC 25.12). Refer to the webpage listed below for a list of City of Seattle landmarks and additional information regarding this specific property: http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/preservation/landmarks_listing.htm
334 Boren Avenue North was designed as a “warehouse for the Boren Investment Company” by the firm of Stuart and Wheatley in 1925 and built during that year. By 1938 and into the early 1950s at least, the building housed the United States Radiator Corporation. The building is virtually intact on its street facing elevations and retains its original multi-pane sash. Based on the original construction drawings, it has even kept the original configuration of the many door openings, if not the original doors themselves. The only real change is that overhanging marquees, occurring above the large openings at the second and third bays of the west elevation and at the entry bay on the north elevation have not been retained. The design uses simple modules of multi-pane window, with consistent variation, as well as repeated elements, such as the buttress piers, to create an interesting rhythm in the exterior design of the building. The building is a good example of a larger 1920s warehouse with exterior brick walls. Its detailing is original, but the building also fits in with similar industrial buildings in the vicinity, such as the landmark Troy Laundry Building of 1927 and 413 Fairview Avenue North of 1924. The Seattle firm of Stuart and Wheatley, which described itself as “architects engineers” was founded by Bertram Dudley Stuart and Arthur Wheatley in 1925 and lasted until 1930. Stuart was born in London in 1885 and practiced architecture in Edmonton in the Province of Alberta in Canada, before moving to Seattle in 1918. The firm designed several well-known Seattle buildings, including the Bergonian Hotel of 1926, now the Mayflower Hotel, and two striking apartment buildings on First Hill, the Marlborough Apartments and the Exeter House Apartments, both completed in 1927. Stuart later formed a partnership with Robert Durham in 1941, which lasted until 1977.
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| Appearance |
| This is a one story structure with an additional mezzanine level on its interior. Its plan is square, 121 feet by 121 feet. It has exterior walls of brick, with interior construction in heavy timber, set on a concrete foundation. Its street facing elevations face north along Harrison Street and west along Boren Avenue North. North and west elevations are divided into six bays, clad in brick, by engaged piers. These appear as flat piers, with a concrete base, brick clad shaft, and “buttress capitals,” which, in profile are angled and project out over the pier shaft with a slight drip edge. The brick clad parapet rises above the piers and is topped by a distinctive molding, which is mainly horizontal, but includes rectilinear depressions over the buttress capitals. On the north elevation, the standard bay consists of three long multi-pane windows, with the central window slighter wider, (4 panes in the horizontal and six panes in the vertical direction), than the other two (each 3 panes in the horizontal and six panes down). At the third bay from the east, there is an entry bay, with two sets of double doors and an additional single entry door, with three window openings, also with multi-pane sash above. The windows are three panes in the vertical direction, but follow the standard widths in the horizontal direction. These are the standard smaller window openings on both elevations. The west, Boren Avenue elevation has the same bays divisions and uses the same variations on the standard window sash modules, seen on the north Harrison Street elevation. The first and fifth and sixth bays from the north use the standard configuration of three vertical multi-pane windows. The second and third bays have low, multiple doors set within wide openings over concrete foundation. These openings are surmounted by the standard configuration for smaller windows. The fourth bay is also a modified version of the standard bay. There is a taller, single door opening and a wider opening surmounted by smaller windows in the standard configuration in the horizontal direction, but only two panes in the vertical direction. Another notable feature, at the parapet level bay, are the rectangular shapes created in header bricks at the center of each bay. At the center of each rectangle is a smaller diamond shape, created with small angled bricks. |
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| Status: |
Yes - Inventory |
| Classication: |
Building |
District Status: |
INV |
| Cladding(s): |
Brick, Stone - Cast |
Foundation(s): |
Concrete - Poured |
| Roof Type(s): |
Flat with Parapet |
Roof Material(s): |
Asphalt/Composition |
| Building Type: |
Commercial/Trade - Warehouse |
Plan: |
Rectangular |
| Structural System: |
Brick |
No. of Stories: |
one |
| Unit Theme(s): |
Architecture/Landscape Architecture, Commerce, Manufacturing/Industry |
| Integrity |
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Changes to Plan: |
Intact |
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Changes to Windows: |
Slight |
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Changes to Original Cladding: |
Intact |
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| Major Bibliographic References |
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City of Seattle DCLU Microfilm Records.
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King County Property Record Card (c. 1938-1972), Washington State Archives.
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Ochsner, Jeffrey Karl, ed. Shaping Seattle Architecture, A Historical Guide to the Architects. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994.
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